Florida will receive $1.6 billion over 17.5 years as a result of a multi-state opioid settlement with major pharmaceutical companies, according to the Florida Attorney General’s Office.
Florida and 13 other states announced the $26 billion agreement last month with pharmaceutical distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson, as well as Johnson & Johnson. A large majority of the settlement will fund opioid treatment and recovery.
In Florida, people who die from opioid overdoses now number 21 per day, for a total of 7,500 deaths last year as a result of such overdoses, state Attorney General Ashley Moody said.
“I recognize that no amount of money will bring back those lost, but Florida and its subdivisions will receive more than a billion and a half dollars under these agreements to pay for prevention, treatment and recovery-related services,” Moody said in a prepared statement. “I will continue litigating with the remaining defendants to hold them accountable.”
The Florida Behavioral Health Association (FBHA) expressed hope that the availability of additional funds would help Floridians deal with the addictive properties of opioids.
“Battling the opioid epidemic has never been more important,” Melanie Brown-Woofter, the FBHA’s president and CEO, told the Florida Record in an email. “Recent data validates what providers experienced over the last year -- opioid overdoses increased due to the pandemic. We must continue to fund treatment, prevention, research and education in order to keep individuals in recovery, reunite families and build strong communities.”
The pharmaceutical companies did not admit liability for the opioid epidemic in the settlement, but the industry has vowed to make changes to prevent addictive drugs from killing tens of thousands of Americans in the future. Under the terms of the settlement, the distributors will create a data clearinghouse to provide more transparency in drug distributions and analyze where drugs are winding up and how often.
If enough state and local governments take part in the settlement, the three distributors will pay up to $21 billion over 17.5 years, while Johnson & Johnson will pay up to $5 billion over nine years, according to the Florida Attorney General’s Office.
Johnson & Johnson maintains that its marketing and promotion of prescription opioid drugs were appropriate.
“This is not an admission of any liability or wrongdoing, and the company will continue to defend against any litigation that the final agreement does not resolve,” Johnson & Johnson said in a statement. “The company no longer sells prescription opioid medications in the United States. …”